Pages

Friday, September 5, 2014

Fall is Falling! and the Weekly Specials with Mary Anne

Summer finally arrived – briefly – and now it’s back to
cooler weather again tomorrow. I have to admit the idea of cool and less humid is very
appealing. I love Fall weather – cool nights and brisk days and blue skies. And
have you noticed that the leaves are starting to fall already?

What makes it official, though, that it’s almost fall is
that Marsh has pumpkins for sale. Honest! Already! It’s one thing for them to
be at the Farmers Market, but on sale at a grocery store? Don’t worry, though.
I’m not going to be talking about how to cook them today, though there are some
recipes here for things to do with pumpkins that don’t involve making pumpkin
pie…

Marsh has pie pumpkins for $1.99 each. These are smaller
than field or jack-o-lantern pumpkins and better for making pies or using in
other dishes. Gala apples and Bartlett pears are $1.29 a pound. Family packs of
boneless skinless chicken breasts are $1.88 a pound, as are pork chops. Milk is
$2.99 a gallon, but if you buy five of a various things you can get a dollar
off of each of them, bringing the price down to $1.99 a gallon.

Kroger has broccoli crowns, Roma tomatoes, and romaine and
red and green leaf lettuce for 99 cents a pound. Two heads of cauliflower or
celery are $3.00, or $1.50 each. Iceberg lettuce is 99 cents a head. Bone-in
turkey breast is $1.29 a pound and chicken wings are $1.99 a pound. Milk is
$2.69 a gallon. Cottage cheese is $2.29 for 24 ounces and cheese is $3.79 for
twelve to sixteen ounces.

Aldi has green and red grapes $1.98 for two pounds, or 99
cents a pound. Navel oranges are $2.49 for three pounds, or 83 cents a pound.
Avocados are 49 cents each. 32-ounces of non-fat Greek yogurt is $3.89.

And there’s still lots of great produce available at the
Farmers Market. If you receive Food Stamps, don’t forget that you can exchange
up to $18 of food stamps for up to $36 of Market Bucks, effectively getting
your produce, meat, eggs, and dairy for half-price.

It’s way too early to be thinking about Thanksgiving
turkeys, either, though turkey breast is on sale this week. That’s ok, though –
just the turkey breast. I can handle that all year long. And better to be
talking about it now than closer to the big day. If you think about it, turkey is just another
kind of meat. It’s really the side dishes that make it seem Thanksgiving-y. So
let’s steer clear of candied sweet potatoes and green bean casserole and
pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce for now, shall we?

I did some looking around online, and came up with an
average size turkey breast is between 4 and 8 pound and that you should buy
about half a pound of turkey per person. SLOW COOKER TURKEY BREAST calls for a six-pound turkey, so that falls right in
there, and should make about twelve servings, or three meals for four people
each. Each serving will cost about 70 cents a serving, or $2.80 for four
servings. A bit less if you make your own ONION SOUP MIX, a bit more if you a commercial mix. Don’t throw out the cooking
liquid when you cook the turkey breast! It makes a great soup.

Let’s start with hot sliced turkey, broccoli, and CARROT SALAD. The turkey is $2.80, a
pound and a half of broccoli is $1.50, and the Carrot Salad is $1.30, for a
total of $5.60 for four servings, or $1.40 per serving.

The second meal will also be sliced turkey breast, either
hot or cold, with FAUXPOTATO SALAD
and sliced tomatoes. (What on earth is Fauxpotato Salad? It’s just potato salad
made with cauliflower instead of potatoes. Sound strange? Well, remember that I
don’t eat potatoes. Oddly enough, cauliflower makes a pretty good substitute. You
could make your own potato salad, but at least try your recipe once with
cauliflower instead of potatoes!) The turkey breast is still $2.80, the
Fauxpotato Salad is $1.75, and a pound of Roma tomatoes is 99 cents (let’s call
it $1.00), for a total of $5.55. How about half a pound of grapes to go with
it, which brings it to $6.05. You can back off a bit of either grapes or
tomatoes to get rid of that extra 5 cents and bring it back to $6.00 or less
for four people, or $1.50 per person. How much Fauxpotato Salad you’re going to
get depends on how big your head of cauliflower is, but I’m assuming you’re
going to get at least four cups of florets from half a head of cauliflower.

The third meal will be a leftovers kind of meal. You should
have roughly a third of the turkey breast left, but it might be in scraps
instead of nice slices. No problem. Use it to make EASY CHICKEN DIVAN, but use turkey instead of chicken and use fresh
broccoli. You could use a combination of broccoli and cauliflower if you wanted
to, or even all cauliflower for a different dish. It depends on how big the
heads of cauliflower are. Either way, it should make six servings and cost
about $6.90, or $4.60 for four servings, if you use CREAM OF WHATEVER SOUP MIX. At least another dollar if you use canned soup. Add half a head of lettuce, a couple
of Roma tomatoes and some salad dressing for a whole meal for right around
$6.00, depending on how much salad dressing you use.

Budget Lunch

And finally, there’s the cooking liquid from slow cooking
the turkey breast. I hope you didn’t throw it out! Skim off the fat (optional)
and add enough water to make between four and six cups. Heat it and add half a
head of cauliflower (about six cups). Cook it until the cauliflower is very
soft, puree it in a blender or food processor or using a stick blender (Don’t
have any of these? Borrow a food processor or stick blender from MHC’s Hub Tool
Share Program. It’s free!) Add a cup or so of half and half and you’ve got
about ten to twelve cups of really tasty soup. Enough for four good sized
servings at a cost of about $1.15, or less than 30 cents each! That’s figuring
that the cooking liquid is free, since we’ve counted all the cost in the
turkey. Instead of using the cauliflower you could use the leftover Easy
Chicken (Turkey) Divan, which would bring the cost up to $2.70, or about 70
cents per serving. Myself, I’d save the Turkey Divan for another meal and make
the cauliflower soup. But it’s up to you. Just be sure that you don’t toss the
cooking liquid from the turkey!

Even with pumpkins and turkey on sale, it’s much too early
to be thinking about Halloween, let alone Thanksgiving. But turkey is much too
good to bring out only on holidays. Enjoy it all year long, when it’s on sale.